Back in early July, a fellow stalker named Charles posted a comment on my Challenge Lindsay page asking me to track down the building where Punky Brewster (Soleil Moon Frye) lived with her adoptive father, curmudgeon Henry Warnimont (George Gaynes), in the 1980s television series Punky Brewster. Now this stalker absolutely LOVED herself some Punky B! Like loved, loved, loved it! Yes, I wore different colored high-tops in the third and fourth grade. Yes, I donned a skate key around my neck. And yes, I had a Punky Brewster doll. Still do, in fact. It was one of my most prized possessions! So when I received Charles’ challenge I couldn’t help but wonder why I had never thought to track the place down myself! I immediately got on the case, though, and, thankfully, found the building quite quickly. Once I had the address, I was absolutely chomping at the bit to stalk it, but, unfortunately, had to wait until the Grim Cheaper and I were in L.A. this past weekend. Good things come to those who wait, though.
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I found this locale thanks to the fact that in the Season 1 opening credits of Punky Brewster an address number of 2520 was visible on the front door of the apartment building, as you can see below. And while the series was set in Chicago and Henry and Punky were said to live at 2520 Pierce Street in the Windy City (a location which doesn’t actually exist), I had a feeling that their building was actually located somewhere in Los Angeles, most likely in the downtown area. So I did a Google search for “2520”, “Los Angeles” and “apartments” and, sure enough, one of the results turned out to be Henry and Punky’s building! Yay!
I literally could NOT have been more excited to see the building in person, especially being that it still looks EXACTLY the same as it did in 1984 when it first appeared on Punky Brewster – in the pilot episode which was titled “Punky Finds a Home: Part 1.”
Even the “2520” address marker has not been altered since filming took place. LOVE IT!
As soon as we pulled up to the building, I couldn’t help but belt out the Punky Brewster theme song, much to the GC’s chagrin. (Actually he’s lucky I didn’t make him lie down in the street so that I could walk over him a la Henry in the opening credits. ;)) And yes, I still know the whole thing by heart. “Maybe the world is blind . . . or just a little unkind. Don’t know. Seems you can’t be sure . . . of anything anymore . . . although, you may be lonely and then, one day you’re smiling again. Every time I turn around . . . I see the girl who turns my world around, standing there . . . every time I turn around . . . her spirit’s lifting me right off the ground. What’s gonna be? Guess we’ll just wait and see.”
In real life, the building is named the Trebor Apartments and it was originally built in 1909.
In the opening scene of “Punky Finds a Home: Part 1”, Punky is shown putting her dog, Brandon, in a bag and pulling him up onto the apartment’s fire escape using a rope pulley.
And while I had assumed that the scene was most likely shot elsewhere – quite possibly on a studio lot – as it turns out, I was wrong. While I was stalking the place, I decided to venture around to the side of the building to see if there was a fire escape there. Sure enough, there was – and it still bears the same ornate ironwork that appeared in the episode, which I could NOT have been happier to see! (And believe me, if I could have figured out a way to get up on that fire escape to pose for a picture, I so would have! ;))
The interior of Henry and Punky’s building was, of course, just a set built on a soundstage – first at NBC Studios (now The Burbank Studios) in Burbank and then later at the now defunct Metromedia Square in Hollywood. (Metromedia Square, which later became Fox Television Center, was demolished in 2003 and is now the site of Helen Bernstein High School, aka William McKinley High School from Glee, which I blogged about here.)
The interior of Henry and Punky’s apartment was also just a set. LOVE the Michael Jackson poster in the second screen capture below. 🙂
You can watch the Punky Brewster opening theme, in which the Trebor Apartments are featured quite extensively, by clicking below.
Thanks to the Silent Locations blog, I also learned that the Trebor Apartments appeared briefly in the 1926 silent film The Strong Man, as the spot where ‘Lily’ of Broadway (Gertrude Astor) hailed a cab with Paul Bergot (Harry Langdon).
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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Charles for challenging me to find this location! 🙂
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: The Punky Brewster apartment building is located at 2520 West 7th Street, just west of MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles.
This building is currently (Feb. and March 2021) used in a TV commercial for the product Prolia. You can see even the address on the building. Even more interesting is that post-production made it look like the whole front of the building (street, cars, and people) is covered in snow and snow is shown falling down too. The woman in the commercial is all bundled up and it really looks like someplace like Boston or New York in winter.
Any chance you can find the house used as the house of Margaux?
Do you have any screen captures of it? If so, send them to me at Lindsay@iamnotastalker.com and I’ll look for it.
I lived in this building in 1977 – 78 in Apts. 205 and 301. I have visited the building a few times as recently as 2016. The manager each time wouldn’t let me in to look around (“I don’t have time”) but looking through the front door it looks exactly like it did in the late ’70s. It really was (and still looks like) a really well maintained building. In fact, it looks exactly like it did in the ’70s. At that time anyway, the rooms were either singles or doubles. In the doubles, there were no separate bedrooms; rather, a large sliding door separated one half of the apartment from the other. Small kitchens and bathrooms. You really had to like your roommate to stay long. A single was a fairly large front room with a small kitchen and bathroom. The coolest feature was the bed that slid out from the wall into the front room. When it was pushed into the wall, you couldn’t see it all. When I was in a double room the total monthly rent was $200.00 and the single was $150.00 right in the heart of Los Angeles! At that time too the smog was largely unregulated so on bad days buildings just 5 blocks away disappeared entirely. It was a pretty tough neighborhood.
It’s amazing!!! I am from Brazil and I watched Punky when I was a child, I think it was 1994… I loved Punky, Pink, Henry…. someday I will visit USA and this building… thanks for this information!!!
Actually you got it reversed, Punky Brewster was first filmed at Metromedia Square and then they moved to NBC Studios in Burbank after Fox took over Metromedia and changed the name to Fox Television Center using it for its own programs i.e. Married with Children, Small Wonder etc…
This is best by far!
I remember watching this show! It was a good one.
Um way too excited over this post! I’ve been watching the show with my daughter (I have all the seasons on dvd, ha!) and she loves it. I always assumed the building was actually in Chicago, so silly. Love how it hasn’t changed a bit! I asked on your FB, but do you know about the school from the show? It reminds me of the one from Never Been Kissed but I haven’t taken the time to look into it.
Love this post!!
Wow. What an amazing post. Just when I think you did your best you out do yourself.
Thank you!